This LA woman talking about her fire-destroyed home and neighbourhood is an absolutely heartbreaking watch
The scale of the destruction caused by the fires in Los Angeles this week is almost impossible to comprehend.
Entire neighbourhoods destroyed. Countless numbers of people seeing all of their possessions incinerated. Community bonds lost forever.
This interview with a woman named Fran, as she tours her destroyed neighbourhood of Altadena, conveys the depth of the loss that so many people have experienced.
Fran lost the home she has lived in for 26 years in Altadena.
She poured everything into it. pic.twitter.com/I2avp8aObe— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) January 9, 2025
Fran explains how she lived in her now ruined house for 26 years, how they had just hosted their extended family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Fran is able to talk the reporter through the whole street, explaining who all the neighbours were, their histories, what was going on in their lives before the fires hit.
The clip of Fran’s heartbreaking interview has gone viral, with many holding it up as putting a human face on a disaster that has ruined the lives of so many who are not super wealthy or comfortable celebrities in LA.
1.
I wish people would stop doing the “rich people can handle it just fine” thing. This woman is expressing deep love for her neighbors––she knows them all by name: who was recently widowed, who lost their parents, where each person’s kids went to school. That community she’s spent… https://t.co/vpV1cHRlVE
— Liz Wolfe (@LizWolfeReason) January 10, 2025
2.
everyone talking about how LA is all rich people need to watch this. we’re talking about real people with families and communities, that have built up a home over decades filled with love. these fires have destroyed so many homes just like this. https://t.co/ulLeHAfMTf
— sean yoo (@SeanYoo) January 9, 2025
3.
I think what’s so profoundly moving about this video is how through her retelling, it reminds us that inside every person is a whole world, brimful of joy and heartbreak. Every neighborhood, a constellation.
“Everyone you’re looking at is also you.” https://t.co/KylPoAXfGa
— Andrew, Sun’s Avatar (@Aethros_Tempest) January 9, 2025
4.
Hearing this woman talk about the neighbors who have lived in community for decades and is now displacement broke me.
That’s part of what I find so sociopathic about the free market freaks. No care for permanence, community. Just market whims. When someone richer wants it, bye. https://t.co/OyVaakB8RR
— Kate Willett (@katewillett) January 11, 2025
5.
Home There is not enough kleenex in Los Angeles to handle all this heartbreak, devastation, and loss. My heart is with you, Fran. @BrianEntin https://t.co/xpPZSWrxee
— Maria Shriver (@mariashriver) January 10, 2025
6.
I have thought of Fran, and how many Frans there are now, for the last 24 hours since I saw this. This has been such a sad and scary week. https://t.co/Szsp46m7By
— Elika Sadeghi (@elikasadeghi) January 10, 2025
7.
“my little house that I loved” that makes me cry. my heart breaks for her bc I think of my mother after Katrina. she worked so hard for that. https://t.co/DbI6cxLUy3
— KRISTINA KAY ROBINSON (@_Kristina_Kay) January 10, 2025
8.
A lot of the so called rich have just lived in their house for a long time while California real estate went insane. I have a relative who’s high up in management of a grocery chain who told me that they have something like 75 employees who have been evacuated & 20, or so, have…
— Zetetic Advocate (@ZeteticAdvocate) January 10, 2025
9.
One thing I just love about this woman is that amongst her own grief she has such sympathy and caring for her neighbors and friends.
— Eoin Andersen (@eoinandersen) January 10, 2025
10.
A lot of these families were normal middle class people who’ve lived there for decades, before prices were prohibitive.
Sure they had a large illiquid wealth via RE, but not much actual income.
So now that their property has burned down, they’re in a much tougher situation…
— Concave (@ConcaveMMT) January 10, 2025
11.
we have a family friend who bought their house in the Palisades in 1973 with all the money they had at the time. they’re elderly, and financially ruined. will be subsisting on handouts for the rest of their lives.
— Tim Gilmour (@timgilmour) January 10, 2025
12.
When your home burns down, it’s literally like losing a loved one.
For the next several years, there will be reminders every time you realize “oh that document was burned up in the fire”.
Blessings and prayers to them. When you lose something, you gain somewhere else.
— Decode the World (@Decode_Z_World) January 10, 2025
13.
You can feel the pain in the ether here.
I just want to find this woman and give her a hug.
So many people I know have lost their home… we got lucky, as the Eaton Fire just missed us, but so many friends are in so much shock and pain right now.
Driving through the… pic.twitter.com/ivWLgY0CkP
— Thomas Lawson (@Thomasfidy) January 10, 2025
14.
There’s so much love for community in this video. It’s a powerful testament to what that means.
— Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) January 10, 2025
15.
So traumatic and sad. I’m really happy she got one last Christmas with her family there.
— Alex Friedman (@heyalexfriedman) January 10, 2025
16.
This really puts it in perspective, what a wonderful neighbor and neighborhood. God bless them all
— B Holl (@BHoll83918096) January 10, 2025
17.
this is the perfect explanation for why losing everything is so hard. it doesn’t matter if you have a lot of money or not a lot – losing your home is about your memories and community, and i’m sure all of them feel like they’re losing that. https://t.co/dXxjFBNscV
— cat (@feedthecath) January 10, 2025
Source: Twitter/X/BrianEntin